Town boss Paul Jewell admitted his side were side were again under par as Crystal Palace picked up a deserved 1-0 victory at Portman Road. Eagles manager Dougie Freedman thought he had caught the Blues, who he believes will be in the top six at the end of the season, on a bad day.
Jewell said: "We didn’t perform today. Give Crystal Palace some credit, they caused us problems with their pace, but we didn’t cause them problems.
"In this little run we’ve been on we’ve created chances, we’ve had good movement, but today we just looked flat. It’s a shame that we get a terrific crowd in again and we don’t perform as we’d like to.”
The Blues boss says that during the run, in which Town won four home games in a row, he had tried to play down expectations, believing that while progress has been made, there’s still a lot of work to do: "People have been saying nice things about us and I’ve been trying saying to keep a lid on it because there’s a long way to go in the season.
"When we came here in January, we were three points from relegation, so I think we’ve come a long way in a shortish period of time and it’s not going to be one big quantum leap to where we want to go.
"We’ve had some troughs already this season, this is a kick in the teeth and we’ve got to bounce back from it.”
Jewell dismissed suggestions that his side might be tired with Palace also having played three games in a week: "I know what the next question is going to be about — we’ve got some 30-somethings in the side.
"Age is one of those things which people are always looking to use as an excuse. Our lads are fit but we just didn’t play well.
"We didn’t play well on Tuesday and we didn’t play well today. I’ll hold my hands up and say that today we weren’t at our best.”
The Town manager said Jimmy Bullard, subbed after an hour, wasn’t injured, despite the midfielder appearing to be suffering with a groin problem: "I thought I’d just try and freshen it up, whether the changes didn't work is just the way it is.
"Sonko’s a doubt for next week. He was never really going make this week; nicking a hamstring on a Tuesday and being fit for the Saturday is difficult.
"Damien’s done something to his foot, I don’t know what it is. Obviously for those two it’s disappointing.”
Jewell left strike pair Jason Scotland and Michael Chopra on the bench due to them both having minor problems: "They had one or two niggles. Without going into too much detail, I know what’s going on day to day with them and we don’t like to shout out about it, but they’ve been carrying one or two knocks.”
The Blues boss had no complaints about Aaron Cresswell’s sending off for a second yellow card for dissent in the closing stages.
Palace manager Dougie Freedman was delighted with the victory which took the Eagles into third with Town dropping to ninth: "I felt throughout the match we created enough chances to win the game. It’s pleasing to come to a place like Ipswich and win.
"I think we caught them on an off-day because I’ve seen them this season and they’ve been a lot better than that. I strongly believe with that group of players they’ll be in the top six come the end of the season.”